Namco nukes Dubai: Soul Calibur 5 announced for 2012

Namco Bandai’s Level Up press event has wrapped up at the Madinat conference center in Dubai, with the big news being Soul Calibur 5’s announcement for a 2012 release.

Namco’s Dubai event – highlights

Soul Calibur V announced for 2012. It’s a continuation of the SCIV storyline and features Patroklos, Sophitia’s son, as lead.

Dark Souls out October. Pre-order content for both 360 and PS3 confirmed. New trailer here.

Ace Combat: Assault Rising out October 11 in the US, October 14 in Europe.

Tales of Graces F will launch on PS3 in Europe and the US next year. Tales of the Abyss on 3DS this year.

New, untitled Dragon Ball announced for PS3 and 360, but no details were given.

Bodycount launching this summer.

The press conference began with a showreel of what’s to come from the company, before NBGP Europe VP Oliver Comte came to the stage. He said Dubai was picked as the location for today’s event because it’s the setting of Ace Combat: Assault Rising.

A new trailer on Ridge Racer: Unbounded was shown, as was a new look at Inversion. That’s out on February 7 in the US and February 10, 2012 elsewhere.

Namco touched upon its distribution deal with Codemasters in a number of regions, reiterating September dates for F1 2011 and confirming a summer launch for FPS Bodycount. A new trailer was shown.

Then the first of the big guns: Dark Souls. Namco confirmed an early October launch for the west, with “excellent” pre-order content to come for the game for PS3 and 360.

A new trailer was then shown to attendees. You can watch it here. A collector’s edition will be coming, and there’ll be more on that soon.

Team ACES producer Kazutoki Kono came out to talk about Ace Combat: Assault Rising, before airing a new trailer.

The air-based shooter’s now confirmed for an October 11 launch in the US, and will follow on October 14 in Europe. Pre-orders are now open, with those who do take the plunge getting a limited edition soundtrack.

Ace Combat was confirmed to be in development for 3DS. No more details was given on that, though.

Tekken, Soul Calibur

The firm then moved onto Tekken. Project lead Katsuhiro Harada appeared to confirm first details on Tekken: Blood Vengeance, a CG animation. We’re all being encouraged to forget about the Hollywood movie, apparently. Vengeance will launch in theatres this summer in full 3D. You can watch a trailer of it below.

The news so many RPG fans have been waiting for was confirmed: Tales of Graces F will launch on PS3 in Europe and the US next year, with Tales of the Abyss hitting 3DS this year.

An off-screen vid of the Soul Calibur 5 trailer
from Dubai (Via Kotaku).

Next, we moved onto Naruto: Ultimate Ninja for PSP. That’ll launch in September. A new trailer aired. We then got our first look at a new Dragonball title coming to PS3 and 360, but it remains untitled.

Then the main event: Soul Calibur 5 was announced, with producer Hisaharu Tago from Project Soul arriving on stage with a sword to formally announce the fighter. A new trailer was shown to attendees, but first details are that it takes place 17 years after SCIV, the battle system is improved and that new features have been included. The game’s main character is called Patroclus.

It’s out in 2012.

Namco’s promised us there are going to be some proper announcements here, so don’t blink. Daishi Odashima has already said he’ll “hopefully” be releasing the first info on the new Soul Calibur game sometime in May, so this could well be it.

Namco has announced Inversion is now available on Steam for PC. The game, which contains multiplayer modes for up to 12 players online and co-op modes, was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 last week. Hit up the game on Steam through here.

Namco said today that gravity-based shooter Inversion’s released has now been confirmed for July 13 on 360 and PS3. A PC version will follow on July 27. The Saber-developed game, originally intended to hit in February, has slipped twice this year. Watch a video of it in action after the break.